Contact: Ann Hatch
214-378-1819; ahatch@dcccd.edu
For immediate release — Sept. 19, 2017
(DALLAS) — Dallas County Community College District students and faculty members, as well as the general public, can pick up STEAM as they learn more about ways to teach and learn that improve success in the classroom and build future careers.
Presented by the DCCCD STEM Institute and funded by the Dallas/North Texas STEM Degree Accelerator program, the three-part fall series will bring students, teachers and experts together to share teaching and learning approaches in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and STEAM (science, technology engineering, arts and mathematics) fields.
Details about the series are provided below:
- The first installation in the series, titled “If We Learn Like That, Why Do We Teach Like This,” will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 26, from 10 to 11 a.m. at the North Lake College North Campus, room N113; the college’s Coppell campus is located at the southeast corner of State Highway 121 and Sandy Lake Road (101 S. Royal Lane). Register for this program at foundation.dcccd.edu/learn-like-that.
Featured speaker Dr. Robert Duke will focus on possible disconnects between typical approaches to teaching and current knowledge of the learning process; he also will provide suggestions for reducing the gap between them. Duke is the Marlene and Morton Centennial Professor and head of music and human learning at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a member of the UT system’s Academy of Distinguished Teachers. He integrates knowledge of human learning with brain science, using his experience as an educator. - The second program in the series, “Wisdom from the Front Lines,” is an educator-driven STEAM day (self-described as an “unconference”) that will bring together teachers from middle schools through the university level to share best practices, concerns, questions and ideas. The full-day program on Wednesday, Oct. 11, will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in room 125 of Building H at Brookhaven College, which is located at 3939 Valley View Lane in Farmers Branch. The event is free, and continental breakfast and lunch will be provided. Registration is required; to sign up, visit foundation.dcccd.edu/wisdom-from-the-front-lines.
The morning session will focus on cross-institutional discussions about topics which will be determined by the participants. The afternoon session will translate those earlier discussions into direct applications for participating educators’ courses and programs. Everyone will leave the event with pedagogical or organizational activities that focus on increasing student engagement, success and persistence in STEAM fields. - The final fall series program will feature Dr. Linda Hodges for a half-day session titled “Transforming Students into Learners: Helping Students Learn on Their Own.” The event is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 9, at DCCCD’s downtown administration building (rooms 036, 037 and 038). DCCCD’s District Office is located at 1601 S. Lamar St. in Dallas. For registration, visit foundation.dcccd.edu/transforming-students.
The workshop will explore challenges that current students — including those who attend early college high schools — face as they learn from STEM textbooks and other resources. Hodges serves as associate vice provost for faculty affairs and director of the University of Maryland at Baltimore County’s Faculty Development Center. Faculty who attend will develop teaching approaches to address STEM reading challenges and related areas.
For more information, contact Doris Rousey, DCCCD district director of strategic initiatives, at drousey@dcccd.edu or at 214-378-1773.
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